Former business associates were gobsmacked to learn the owner of Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill at The Banks was a former Mafia soldier who started the restaurant after joining the Federal Witness Protection Program.

"Come on,'' said an astonished Mark Fallon, senior vice president of real estate for Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate Inc., which signed Toby Keith's as one of the first tenants at The Banks. "That's a new one on me. In 23 years of doing this, I've never heard that one before.''

Frank Capri, the man behind the restaurant chain, was a former soldier in New York's Lucchese Crime Family who was released from prison in 1999 after agreeing to testify against fellow mobsters, according to a years-long investigation by The Arizona Republic. His real name was Frank Gioia Jr.

Upon his release, he headed to Arizona with his new name and government-issued identity. There he started Boomtown Entertainment, CRGE Cincinnati and a handful of related companies that at one time operated as many as 20 Toby Keith's restaurants across the country.

"Wow!'' That was Mark Frey's reaction when he learned how Capri parlayed a life of crime into a national real estate development and retail operation.

Frey, president of Green Township-based Frey Electric, sued CRGE in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas after repeated efforts to collect payment for his company's work at Toby Keith's, which he said he still hasn't collected.

“They always seemed to have a reason to not have payment but were always demanding that you come down and provide services,’’ Frey said. “They owed us money the whole time, then just bailed on us.''

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Frey eventually won a $2,214 judgment against CRGE in 2015. But the restaurant operator simply ignored the judgment, Frey said.

"There he is owing us money, and us threatening to sue him,’’ Frey added. “I don’t think it (Capri's criminal background) would have changed anything, but it would have been nice to know ahead of time who we were dealing with.''

Frey wasn't alone. The restaurant operator had a history of not paying its debts from the year that it opened in Cincinnati in 2012.

The Banks sued the restaurant's owners in February 2013 alleging Toby Keith's hadn't paid rent since November 2012, forcing the restaurant to shut down briefly.

That case was eventually settled. But the restaurant shut down for good on July 16, 2015 after defaulting on its lease.

Toby Keith had no ownership interest in the restaurants bearing his name; the country singer only collected money on naming rights. Keith did not respond to a request for comment for the story.

Capri and other Boomtown officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The now-defunct restaurant left behind a trail of debt, including a judgment against the restaurant operator for more than $38,000 in unpaid sales taxes awarded to the State of Ohio in 2014.

According to the Arizona Republic, Capri walked away from development deals in dozens of cities. He and his companies have been ordered to pay more than $65 million in judgments, according to the Republic's analysis of court records and media accounts.

Toby Keith's final chapter in Cincinnati may have been among the most frustrating, according to a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of former employees. They allege they were pressured into working during Major League Baseball's busy All-Star week in 2015, even though the owners knew the restaurant would close just a few days later.

To top it off, the lawsuit alleges, bartenders, waiters, and other staff were paid with bad checks.

“They strung people along, stayed open during the All-Star week, then took off with all the money,’’ said Chris Jenkins, managing partner at the Cincinnati law firm, Minnillo & Jenkins, which filed suit on behalf of former Toby Keith employees. “It’s frustrating when you have a righteous case like this, and their answer is to disappear and claim we don’t have any money.’’

Jenkin's firm sued Capri directly and was awarded a judgment for $79,719 for back wages, he said. But the case is still open, and the money was never collected.